When peripheries were centres: a preliminary study of the Shimao-centred polity in the loess highland, China

Jaang, Li; Sun, Zhongchang; Shao, Jing; Li, Min

doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.31

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Both sites were probably surrounded by small agricultural villages that cultivated predominantly millets ( Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica , i.e. C 4 plants) (Jaang et al 2018; Figure 6). Hence, the local ecology surrounding most ancient villages in northern China was C 4 -dominated (Bao et al 2018; Sheng et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

Sheng

Sun

et al. 2020

Antiquity

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

Sheng

Sun

et al. 2020

Antiquity

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“…Decapitation in the Shang (c. 1600-1050 BCE) Evidence for decapitation in northern China dates back to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (Jin 2005;Jaang et al 2018) 1). Many of these deposits were the result of rituals surrounding the construction or consecration of structures, activities which Qian (2019, 308) suggests may have promoted social integration.…”

Section: Decapitation and Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Decapitated Heads as Elite Visual Culture in Late Shang China

Wolin¹

2021

CAJ

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Decapitation was an integral part of the complex ritual practices recorded in the palaeographic and archaeological records at the Late Shang (c. 1250–1050 bce) site of Yinxu in Henan Province, China. Although representations of decapitation are often found in societies where the act was carried out, no clear evidence exists for Yinxu, where only a small number of human depictions have been uncovered to date. In this article, I use archaeological data from sacrificial contexts and material culture uncovered during excavations over the past 90 years to investigate the human head as Late Shang elite visual culture. I argue that the dramatic increase in decapitation at Yinxu necessitated the development of a ritually informed process for handling these remains that transformed them into elite objects, while simultaneously pacifying their potentially dangerous post-mortem agency. This research contributes to global comparative studies on the materiality of the human head.

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“…On the archaeological side of things, the linkage of Shimao's eventual decline to climate change, while plausible, is at best a preliminary correlation given its location, albeit one that seems to have nothing to do with a putative 4.2 ka BP event. With archaeological work in its infancy at the site (Jaang et al, 2018; Owlett et al, 2018; Sun et al, 2018), we currently understand little about Shimao's food production regime and therefore are in no position to model the impact of temperature and rainfall changes on it (even if we knew what they were). Eventually, factors such as anthropogenic impacts on the environment through deforestation and over-grazing need to be incorporated.…”

Section: A Critique Of the Current Archaeological Application Of The mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mismatches of scale in the application of paleoclimatic research to Chinese archaeology

et al. 2020

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Issues surrounding the difficult task of correlating archaeological and climatic trajectories are directly impacting the study of human-environmental interaction in Ancient China. We have chosen to focus on the 4.2 ka BP event due to the widespread belief in recent Chinese archaeological publications that it brought about the collapse of Neolithic cultures in multiple regions of China. Following a literature review concerning the many issues surrounding the reconstruction of the 4.2 ka BP event in East Asia, we present three short case studies from the Lower Yangzi, the Shaanxi loess plateau, and the Central Plains detailing a number of problems with Chinese archaeological attempts at using climate change as a causal mechanism for sociopolitical change. We then focus on a common but highly problematic methodology—the growing use of archaeological data compiled in the Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics to correlate with climate proxies in order to generate linear, causal models explaining sociopolitical collapse. We follow with an example from Northeast China, where work from the past three decades has provided ample data with which to begin answering these questions in a more productive manner, and end with a set of suggestions for archaeologists and climate scientists going forward.

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When peripheries were centres: a preliminary study of the Shimao-centred polity in the loess highland, China

Cited by 33 publications

References 9 publications

Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

Decapitated Heads as Elite Visual Culture in Late Shang China

Mismatches of scale in the application of paleoclimatic research to Chinese archaeology

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